The Ballad of Jed Clampett:
Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,
Then one day he was shootin at some food,
And up through the ground came a bubblin crude.
Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.
With all due respect to the
Beverly Hillbillies, it turns out
there is oil (and natural gas) in Appalachia:
The Appalachian mountains are buzzing with the sounds of oil drilling.
Most of the 900 or so wells drilled in Kentucky this year won't produce more than a barrel or two of oil a day. But with prices around 60 dollars a barrel, those little wells are pulling in big profits, especially when they also pump natural gas.
...
But for Kentucky cattle farmer Billy Carroll, 70, who has two oil and natural gas wells on his property that he leased out in exchange for an eighth of the profits, it means retirement is a lot easier than he had expected.
"The gas well sure has been good to me because I don't have to feed it," he said as he leaned against his truck parked beneath a mountain speckled with fall colors. "I don't do anything. Just get the check."
Two of Carroll's sons also have wells on their farms and many of his neighbors would like to get in on the boom. The problem is there aren't enough rigs to drill them.
"There could be more wells being drilled in Kentucky but because the industry has been depressed for so long there has been a lack of drilling rigs and a lack of skilled labor," said Brandon Nutall, a geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey, a state agency charged with analyzing and cataloguing natural resources.
Nestled among Kentucky's famed coal mines are about five billion barrels of oil reserves, Nutall said. Most of the oil is in small fields that sit relatively close to the surface which makes for cheap drilling and long production cycles.
Ole Jed really could have started the oil bubbling on his land with a shotgun blast!
The fields are too small to interest big oil companies, but that hasn't stopped nearly 2,000 small ones from registering to operate in the state.
Drilling is hard in the mountains and the atmosphere can be reminiscent of a Wild West gold rush atmosphere, especially since many companies don't make it through the bust periods, Nutall said.
"The drillers are hardworking guys. They don't mind getting dirty. They play hard -- you'll hear a lot of cursing," he said. "Most of the people are fiercely independent. They don't want anyone telling them what they can and can't do."
Ah, the joys of the free market. Much more by following the link including the Congresscritters who don't understand any incentives but the government kind and have their panties in a knot because oil prices are up. Maybe they're afraid some of the folks are going to move to Beverly Hills!
